Chapter 42
Power of Psychological Triggers
A desire to buy something often involves a subconscious decision. In fact, I claim that 95 percent of buying decisions are indeed subconscious.
Knowing the subconscious reasons why people buy, and using this information in a fair and constructive way, will trigger greater sales response—often far beyond what you could imagine.
I recall a time when I applied one of these subconscious devices by changing just one word of an ad, and response doubled. I refer to these subconscious devices as psychological “triggers.” A psychological trigger is the strongest motivational factor any salesperson or copywriter can use to evoke a sale.
There are 30 triggers in all, some of which I will reveal to you in a moment. Each trigger, when deployed, has the power to increase sales and response beyond what you would normally expect.
There are triggers, for example, that will cause your prospects to feel guilty if they don't purchase your product. Let me give you an example. Whenever you receive in the mail a sales solicitation with free personalized address stickers, you often feel guilty if you use the stickers and don't send something back—often far in excess of the value of the stickers. Fundraising companies use this method a great deal. You receive 50 cents' worth of stickers and send back a $20 bill.
Another example is those surveys that are sent out asking for you to spend about 20 minutes of your time filling them out. Enclosed in the ...
